Everybody seemed to like the latest twist in the Grim Reaper's life. Lots of positive comments and interest (several dozen!) Quite a few readers mentioned that the story was getting a little boring, with Grim just doing consulting and writing. Sorry if you got bored. (No, not really!)
As for the readers who seemed to think this was a huge jump forward in time from Chapter 30, well, it really wasn't. Chapter 30 occurred on Labor Day 2027, September 6. Chapter 31 started on April 4, 2028. That's about seven months. What was he doing during that time? Just more of the same! He was consulting in southern Georgia and writing a book. I've already written a bunch of chapters about that and didn't see any need to write more. (See comment about boring.) As for the documentary project with Ken Burns, in Chapter 26 it was mentioned that the documentary probably wouldn't air until 2027 or 2028. (I researched how long these projects take. They typically have three or four working at the same time and can take three to four years to complete.) What better time than sweeps week in the fall of 2028?
What was Riley doing with the Coast Guard? Not much, for the simple reason that as a junior in high school there wasn't much to do. As mentioned in Chapter 30, most of the Coast Guard Academy programs are for high school seniors. Other than researching and talking to a CG admissions officer, the big thing she needs to do is take her SAT tests, which normally don't occur until the second semester of your junior year. Otherwise, she and her brother are just normal teenagers.
One of my readers commented on the storage unit that the Reapers rented to hold Granny's stuff after she moved into the assisted living facility. He remarked that often the storage units outlast their owners, that people can't get rid of anything. So true! I saw this in the case of my father-in-law, who had Superdomes full of crap to get rid of when he passed away! I also saw it in my old business of selling homes, where I would get older customers who wanted to downsize, but the new home needed to have room for all their old stuff plus some new! Not quite sure how we were supposed to do that. It was sort of like when my father decided he needed to add a second story onto the split-level they owned. This was after my sister and I had already moved out, and my mother and brother couldn't understand it at all. The plans ended when he came down with dementia, but we were scratching our heads for a bit.
Anyway, enjoy!